No Canadian NAFTA Deal Likely This Week

Intensive trade talks between Canada and the U.S. will resume today, but the prospect of a tentative accord to update NAFTA appears unlikely this week.

Canada’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, insists progress is being made to update the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. But she cautions that trade deals take time to negotiate and update. She adds that Canada is “absolutely committed to getting this right.”

But Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, Canada’s largest trade union, is less optimistic. He tells reporters that this week’s talks so far have produced no significant advances on key issues. The big stumbling blocks continue to revolve around access to Canada’s dairy market and mechanisms with which to resolve trade disputes.

The talks have been complicated by recent U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber. Canada wants all three to have removed as a condition for an agreement.

Meanwhile, time is running short. The U.S. and Mexico settled on a tentative deal last month. But an accord to include Canada must be reached by the end of September if Congress is to approve the measure before Mexico’s current president, who backs the plan, leaves office on Dec. 1.